A Christian Resource for Microenterprise Development

Development Resources

Basic Utility Vehicle:

Website: www.driveBUV.org

Transform lives, deliver vital services, and generate funding for ministry! Poverty, poverty, poverty… There are so many barriers to overcoming poverty but a major cause lies right beneath our feet. In many developing countries, geography is an obstacle. Improving the mobility of the poor opens up access to markets, services, and opportunities. Without transportation, women and children are forced to spend much of each day attending to their most basic needs, like fetching water and firewood. This valuable time could otherwise be used to tend crops and raise livestock for much needed income to care for their family.

Is there a simple, rugged, low cost, low weight vehicle that is easy to operate, maintain and repair? What if someone arrived to a concept vehicle designed for rural off-road areas and heavy payloads with high torque and one that does not require shifting or a clutch? Luckily, there is a solution. The Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) is a vehicle designed for the rural geography of developing countries. It is a simple, low-cost, low- weight vehicle that is easy to operate, maintain, and repair. Designed for rugged terrain, the vehicles are able to serve the vital needs of a community such as transporting the sick, hauling food and water. BUVs also enable people to earn a livelihood and generate income by delivering crops to market and transporting materials. Isn’t it what we need to empower needy people and help them break the cycle of poverty?

The main BUV features include:

20 mph

1200 lb payload

50+ mpg diesel

Designed for micro-factory assembly

8 units per ocean container  

Ability to power other devices

Price $3,000k—$5,000k

Furthermore, BUV is a wonderful tool for micro financing in a developing world. Sometimes the biggest challenge working poor have in getting financing is inability to secure a loan, i.e. to provide any valuable collateral. This is, by the way, one of the biggest hurdles in helping local entrepreneurs grow their businesses. No financing, no growth... But a local entrepreneur somewhere in rural Africa can provide his BUV as collateral for a loan. BUV is an income generator and with a product life of 20 years is perfect collateral! You have your business, you have a BUV, and you can easily get a loan.

The BUV has many applications and can be tailored to meet specific community needs. The mobility that we often take for granted in the United States can be a life-giving tool for people in developing nations. BUVs open up possibilities – for faster water delivery to remote villages, for quickened access to medical care, and for the safe transport of people and goods through rugged terrain. The most common uses include a delivery truck, school bus, water/food transporter, and ambulance. There are also many options for agricultural implements for light tillage ploughing, cultivating, planting, raking, and spreading fertilizer. BUVs are helpful as on-site vehicles for rural clinics, orphanages, schools, nonprofit organizations, and churches. They are perfect for helping people carry goods to and from market as well.

BUV Ministry provides vehicles to missionaries, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit organizations and we also seek to partner with business people abroad in order to start BUV factories. With BUV micro-factories in-country, we encourage local production to create jobs that support families. BUV Ministry manages the research and development for the vehicle’s design and acts as the connector between willing supporters and foreign churches, missionaries, and NGOs that need BUVs to supplement their work in the developing world.

Our approach involves working with local partners and equipping them with the technology they need to support a BUV or micro-factory. We know that if we continue to offer the technology at a low cost, the free market system will allow current business owners to experience profitability with BUV-related business. We seek to partner with people that share our values and business principles, and those people are often identified by churches and mission organizations that know the local people on a personal level.

 The common saying “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” ties into BUV Ministry’s goal to instigate sustainable progress in the developing world.

About BUV Ministry

BUV Ministry is a not-for-profit public charity devoted to improving the lives of the world's poor by providing simple, low-

cost vehicles to facilitate community transformation. We are often identified as a "Business as Mission" enterprise. We are focused on empowering people socially, economically, and spiritually.

BUV Ministry has already sent 100 BUVs to 19 countries worldwide. In addition to the 15 African countries in the map below, we have BUVs in Honduras, Costa Rica, Haiti and Mexico.

For more information, please contact Will Austin at will.austin@drivebuv.org. Or telephone: 317.213.1088